Young scientists find advantages to pursuing related problems — sometimes for years on end

By Susan Gaidos, 11:00 AM April 7, 2013

Coming up with a cool science fair project takes effort. You have to work hard at finding a topic you like and a question you want to explore.

Science fair projects also take time. Many kids easily can spend weeks following an organized set of steps in answering a question — an approach called the scientific method. Other kids can spend even longer perfecting their projects. They may pursue a project for years.

Sure, these are often the whiz kids who dazzle judges and win big awards. But it c...